Prescription sunglasses are a viable product. Enough prescription lens wearers buy them to keep eyewear manufacturers making them. On the other hand, there are viable reasons to invest in a good pair of fit-overs instead. Each one of those reasons gives you an inroad to marketing designer sunglasses to your prescription lens-wearing customers.
Fit-Overs Are Less Expensive
The main appeal of fit-overs is their cost relative to prescription lenses. They are cheaper. In most cases, a lot cheaper. Your customers already spend a lot on their prescription eyewear. Every time their prescriptions change, it is a new investment. On the other hand, a single pair of fit-overs can last a lifetime if taken care of. Your customers buy them once and that's that.
Prescription Changes Don't Matter
Let us explore the idea of prescriptions changing a little bit further. It is normal for a person's prescription to change multiple times over their lifetime. Vision rarely remains static. If a customer pays $200 for every new pair of glasses they buy, the total could easily add up to more than $1,000 over the course of 20 or 30 years.
With fit-overs, the patient's prescription doesn't matter. The patient still wears their prescription lenses underneath the sunglasses. They can use the exact same pair of sunglasses no matter how many times their prescription changes.
Fit-Overs Can Be More Convenient
Another huge selling point for fit-over sunglasses is convenience. Think about visiting a theme park, for example. When you are rocking prescription sunglasses, you always need to carry your regular lenses with you. That means switching your glasses every time you go inside an attraction. Then you switch them again when you come back out. A pair of fit-overs with a neck strap solves that problem.
The other option is to purchase prescription lenses that automatically adjust the tint according to the level of ambient light. But those lenses are even more expensive. The typical prescription lens wearer still gets away cheaper with fit-overs and a regular pair of glasses.
Accidents Aren't So Traumatic
The interesting thing about sunglasses is that they are often associated with outdoor activity that can easily lead to accidents. We have all heard stories of anglers dropping their sunglasses in the water and softball players breaking their sunglasses sliding into home.
Accidents aren't so traumatic when the pair of sunglasses you break can be easily replaced for $25 or so. But if you need to spend hundreds to replace prescription sunglasses, that same accident suddenly becomes a budget buster. A prescription lens wearer with a penchant for outdoor accidents would probably do better with a pair of fit-overs.
Use Your Imagination
People in our industry love to talk about the latest designer sunglasses and fashion eyewear. That's good. They should talk about such things. But let us not forget fit-over sunglasses. They don't get as much attention, but they are just as important.
As for marketing them, use your imagination. Try to put yourself in the shoes of a prescription lens wearer. Try to imagine all the advantages and disadvantages of both fit-overs and prescription sunglasses. There are plenty of marketing avenues to explore if you apply yourself. Every pair of fit-overs you sell saves a prescription lens wearer a fair amount of money.
